The Eastern European country of Bulgaria and in particular its Black Sea coast resorts are becoming increasingly popular with UK leisure travellers as providing a value for money holiday option for the summer, especially following the recent terrorist attacks in Tunisia and the economic problems in Greece. Last year more than one million passengers flew directly between the two countries for the first time ever, according to UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data and numbers are already on the rise for summer 2015 back-filling the lost customers from Russia due to the economic crisis there.
This week, Balkan Holidays, one of the leading tour operators to Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro and Slovenia, has announced a new route between Glasgow and Varna for its Summer 2016 programme. The new summer service is Glasgow’s first direct connection to Varna and will operate once a week on a Saturday starting in May 2016.
“This additional flight will help us deal with increasing demand for Summer holidays to Bulgaria which continues to top the polls in terms of providing the best value for money holidays in Europe. The flights to Varna will also provide additional capacity for us as we become the sole UK operator to the resorts of Golden Sands, St Konstantin and Albena on the Northern Black Sea coast,” said Chris Rand, sales and marketing manager, Balkan Holidays.
Varna, which is Bulgaria’s third largest city, is famed for its mineral springs and beach resorts along the Black Sea coast, which are said to rival that of the Mediterranean. It is also an ideal holiday destination for those with an interest in history and culture, with ancient churches, roman baths and art galleries in abundance and an pupular combination of port city and seaside resort.
Balkan Holidays already operates between Glasgow and Bourgas (alongside Thomson Airways and Thomas Cook Airlines), while last year it also introduced flights between Glasgow and Sofia. This will be the only direct link from Scotland to Varna, a destination that has been recently linked to London, Manchester and Newcastle.
“Varna is a fantastic new addition to our ever-growing list of sun resorts that we serve from Glasgow, and it’s sure to go down a storm with our customers. As well as offering a myriad of beach destinations for travellers of all ages, Bulgaria offers excellent value for money for sun seekers, as well as history, culture and city delights in abundance,” said Francois Bourienne, commercial director, Glasgow Airport
Since the start of the Century direct passenger flows between the UK and Bulgaria have increased more than five-fold from just under 175,000 passengers in 2000 to just over one million last year. After eight successive years of growth since 2000, the market was approaching one million annual passengers in 2008 however, a reduction in charter supply resulted in declines in both 2009 and 2010.
Growth has now returned to this market during the current decade with rises of 2.3 per cent in 2011, 3.5 per cent in 2012, 7.7 per cent in 2013 and 2.7 per cent last year and travel specialists see demand for flights to the likes of Bourgas and Varna continuing to rise with airlines additional more capacity into both markets, particularly with scheduled links and seat-only offers from charter providers.
From a market dominated by tour packages in the mid-2000s, the scheduled market between the UK and Bulgaria has risen from just a 24.1 per cent share of traffic in 2004 and 2005 to a 68.4 per cent share last year: this was an increase of 3.4 percentage points over the previous year.
Our analysis of OAG Schedules Analyser data shows that available capacity from the UK to Bulgaria increased 9.8 per cent in 2014 versus the previous year with over 575,000 seats available in each direction between the two countries. This year Wizz Air, which became the dominant carrier in this market in 2009, has boosted its own offering between the two countries by more than a third (up 34.8 per cent) with additional capacity between London Luton and Bourgas, Sofia and Varna.
This year 18 points in the UK are linked with four points in Bulgaria with 27 different city pairs seeing non-stop service. Over the past two years new flights have been added to Bourgas from Newquay and Sofia from Glasgow and Humberside, while East Midlands – Varna flights have been resumed.
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